The Salisbury girls’ basketball team will have a drastic new look to it this season. The Lady Falcons are now turning the page without four-year varsity player and 1,000-point scorer Lindsay Bauer.

Bauer wasn’t the only graduate from last year’s squad, which went 12-5 in the Colonial League and advanced to the district quarterfinals, but her 19.6 points per game will be missed greatly. Kristen Bucchin, Sydney Utesch and Victoria Tramonte also graduated from the 2016 Salisbury team.

That 2016 team experienced plenty of success that included trips to two different postseason tournaments. Salisbury came up short in the Colonial League tournament against Northwestern in the quarterfinals, 51-38, and then fell to Marian Catholic in the District 11 Class 2A quarterfinals.

“The first two weeks of practice have gone well and everyone remains optimistic,” Mladosich said. “We will need to improve on defense, including rebounding, to compete in the Colonial League.”

While a large portion of Salisbury’s scoring is gone from a year ago, the Lady Falcons still return a number of players with varsity experience. Guard Caylin Meikrantz suits up for her senior season after finishing as the team’s second-leading scorer with 6.8 points per game and 27 3-pointers. Guard/forward Kyra Bruns and center Paige Nicholas also return for their final seasons after seeing significant varsity time a year ago.

That trio will be responsible for much of Salisbury’s scoring, also accounting in for the fact that Rylee Donaldson is no longer with the team after seeing significant varsity time as a freshman.

“Our number one goal is to improve as basketball players and coaches every day,” Mladosich said. “We have a group of players who play hard as a team. We will try to play quicker by pressing full court at times.”

Other returning letter-winners from last winter include junior Kelly Gardus, who will play a key role in Salisbury’s backcourt. Junior Alicia Burkhardt and sophomore Caitlin Scialla will see time at the forward position.

There will be plenty of opportunities for newcomers to the team to make an impact on the varsity stage. Some of those include Haley Szita, Noemi Von Holden, Sarah McGee, Erica Holben, Peyton Stauffer and Olivia Hoeing,

“So far practice has gone well and everyone is working hard,” Mladosich said. “The scrimmage versus Lehighton went well, finding out where we need to improve. We scrimmage Whitehall on Tuesday.”

Salisbury will look to continue its streak of postseason appearances with another trip to districts in 2017. The Lady Falcons have reached districts in each of the past five seasons.

Southern Lehigh, Notre Dame (Green Pond) and Northwestern have been pegged by most as the top teams in the Colonial League.

Salisbury’s season tips off on Friday against Dieruff. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. at Salisbury High School. Their home-friendly start to the season continues with a Saturday afternoon game against Blue Mountain and a meeting with Bangor on Monday.